The present invention is directed to a method for producing thin films or coatings on a solid substrate. These thin films or coatings can be used in an anti-reflection layer, light-absorbing and charge-generating active layer, window or buffer layer, and/or electrode layer in a thin-film solar cell.
Thin-film solar cells or photovoltaic (PV) devices convert sunlight directly into DC electrical power. These multi-layer PV devices are typically configured to include an active layer, which is typically a cooperating sandwich of p-type, intrinsic (i-type), and n-type semiconductors. With appropriately located electrical contacts being included, the structure forms a working PV cell. When sunlight incident on PV cells is absorbed in the semiconductor, electron-hole pairs are created. The electrons and holes are separated by an electric field of a junction in the PV device. The separation of the electrons and holes by the junction results in the generation of an electric current and voltage. The electrons flow toward the n-type region and the holes flow toward the p-type region of the semiconductor material. Current will flow through an external circuit connecting the n-type region to the p-type region as long as light continues to generate electron-hole pairs in the PV device. Solar cells are typically arranged into PV modules by connecting the front of one cell to the back of another, thereby adding the voltages of the individual cells together. A large number of cells, typically 36 to 50, are required to be connected in series to achieve a nominal usable voltage of 12 to 18 V.
The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in commercial use and interest in thin-film PV devices. However, a wider scale commercial use of PV devices for bulk power generation remains limited primarily due to two factors: performance and cost. Recently, dramatic improvements in PV module performance have been achieved in both bulk crystalline silicon and thin film PV devices. The efficiency of laboratory scale crystalline silicon is approaching 20%, while modules with an efficiency ranging from 10 to 14% are commercially available from several vendors. Laboratory scale thin-film PV devices with efficiencies of well above 10% have been achieved with copper indium diselenide (CIS), cadmium telluride, amorphous silicon, and microcrystalline silicon. Most notably, a record efficiency of 18.8% has been achieved for copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS). Additionally, several companies have achieved thin-film large-area modules with efficiencies ranging from 8 to 12%. Although there is still a great deal of room for further efficiency improvements, performance no longer seems to be the key limiting factor. Cost now appears to be the primary factor preventing wide-scale commercialization of PV modules for power generation.
Key areas that dictate the final product cost for a PV device includes capital equipment costs, deposition rates, layer thickness, materials costs, yields, substrates, and front and back end costs [Zweibel]. The present invention was made by taking these factors into consideration. Our work has emphasized the reduction in capital equipment cost, dramatically increased deposition rate, reduced layer thickness, reduced amount of material used, and alternative substrates. In order to illustrate why the present invention stands out as a major advancement in the field of thin-film solar cell technology, the state-of-the-art of this technology is briefly reviewed as follows:
Amorphous silicon has been made into thin film semiconductors by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), or simply plasma discharge or glow discharge, as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,562. Other processes used to make thin film semiconductors include cathode atomization, vapor deposition in a vacuum, high-frequency vaporization in a hydrogen-containing environment, electro-deposition, screen printing and close-spaced sublimation. The close-spaced sublimation process has been used with cadmium telluride and is performed by inserting a glass sheet substrate into a sealed chamber that is then heated. The glass sheet substrate is supported at its periphery in a very close relationship, normally 2 to 3 mm, to a source material of cadmium telluride. After the heating has proceeded to about 450xc2x0 C.-500xc2x0 C., the cadmium telluride begins to sublime very slowly into elemental cadmium and tellurium and, upon reaching a temperature of about 650xc2x0-725xc2x0 C., the sublimation is at a greater rate and the elemental cadmium and tellurium recombines at a significant rate as cadmium telluride on the downwardly facing surface of the peripherally supported glass sheet substrate. The heating is subsequently terminated prior to opening of the chamber and removal of the substrate with the cadmium telluride deposited on the substrate. Thus, the deposition of the cadmium telluride is at a varying temperature that increases at the start of the processing and decreases at the end of the processing. Furthermore, the largest area on which such close-spaced sublimation has previously been conducted is about 100 cm2. Increasing the size of the substrate can cause problems in maintaining planarity since the heated substrate which is supported at only its periphery will tend to sag at the center.
Several methods have been proposed for producing the copper indium diselenide (CIS) active layer, such as a three-source simultaneous-deposition method, a spraying method, a two-stage selenidation method, a selenidation method using H2Se, a sputtering method, and an electro-deposition method. The three-source simultaneous-deposition method requires a deposition apparatus having a vacuum chamber which contains Cu, In, and Se evaporation sources. The three elements are evaporated simultaneously from their respective sources and deposited onto a substrate preheated to 350-400xc2x0 C. Other methods for producing thin-film PV devices include solution spraying, spray pyrolysis, and combined plasma CVD and sputtering.
Optically transparent and electro-conductive electrodes can be obtained by two primary methods. The first method involves producing a metal oxide thin film, such as indium-tin oxide (ITO) or antimony-tin oxide (ATO), on a transparent glass or plastic substrate by sputtering or chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The second method involves solution-coating a transparent, electro-conductive ink on a support such as a glass substrate. The ink solution composition contains a powder of ultra-fine, electro-conductive particles having a particle size smaller than the smallest wavelength of visible rays. The ink is then dried on the support, which is then baked at temperatures of 400xc2x0 C. or higher.
The first method requires the utilization of expensive devices and its reproducibility and yield are low. Furthermore, the procedure is tedious and time-consuming, typically involving the preparation of fine oxide particles, compaction and sintering of these fine particles to form a target, and then laser- or ion beam-sputtering of this target in a high-vacuum environment. Therefore, it was difficult to obtain transparent electro-conductive coatings that are of low prices. The electro-conductive film formed on the support by the second method tends to have some gaps remaining between the ultra-fine particles thereon so that light scatters on the film, resulting in poor optical properties. In order to fill the gaps, heretofore, a process has been proposed in which a glass-forming component is incorporated into the transparent, electro-conductive ink prior to forming the transparent, electro-conductive substrate. However, the glass-forming component is problematic in that it exists between the ultra-fine, electro-conductive particles, thereby increasing the surface resistivity of the electro-conductive film to be formed on the support. For this reason, therefore, it was difficult to satisfy both the optical characteristics and the desired surface resistivity conditions of the transparent, electro-conductive substrate by the above-mentioned second method. In addition, the transparent, electro-conductive substrate formed by the second method has exhibited poor weatherability. When the substrate is allowed to stand in air, the resistance of the film coated thereon tends to increase with time.
Prior art methods or processes and apparatus for producing thin-film solar cells suffer the following shortcomings:
(1) Most of the processes are relatively slow, resulting in low production rates. These include plasma CVD and sputtering processes.
(2) Processes that involve a high-vacuum environment are essentially limited to a batch-wise, non-continuous production of the PV devices. They are not amenable to the mass production of PV modules or systems.
(3) Most of the PV-producing apparatus and systems make use of expensive equipment, e.g. a laser beam or ion beam source in sputtering.
(4) Several processes rely on the utilization of expensive precursor chemicals such as silane (SiH4), diborane (B2H6), cadmium acetate, indium trichloride, and thiourea. Some by-products (e.g. HCl) of a decomposition process such as CVD or PECVD are not environmentally friendly.
(5) Most of the prior art processes are only applicable to the deposition of one substrate layer or functional film of a specific material composition, but not sufficiently versatile to permit deposition of different layers of a PV device. For instance, a technique that is good for making an amorphous Si layer may not be good for making a conductive and transparent coating on a substrate.
A high-rate thin-film deposition technique is flame, arc, or plasma spraying. For instance, Janowiecki, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,770, Jan. 18, 1977) disclosed a plasma spraying process for preparing polycrystalline solar cells. A doped silicon powder was injected into a high temperature ionized gas or plasma to become molten and to be sprayed onto a substrate. Upon cooling, a dense polycrystalline silicon film was obtained. Then, a p-n junction was formed on the sprayed film by spray deposition, diffusion or ion implantation. A similar plasma thermal spray technique was used by Sasaki, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,745, Nov. 1, 1994) to produce a solar cell substrate, by Lindmayer (U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,842, Dec. 23, 1980) to deposit metal contacts to PV electrodes, and by Loferski, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,880, Sep. 4, 1979) to coat a layer of semiconductor over a metallic surface. This conventional plasma spray approach has exhibited several drawbacks. Firstly, since the powder particles were melted, but not vaporized, to become melt droplets prior to deposition onto a solid substrate, the produced coatings tend to be porous and non-homogeneous. These poor quality coatings were not very suitable for use in a high-efficiency solar cell. Second, these liquid droplets are typically micrometer- or millimeter-sized and, hence, the resulting coatings are relatively thick, typically thicker than several tens of xcexcm and often on the order of several hundreds of xcexcm. This is undesirable for the production of thin-film solar cells, wherein individual layers are preferably 1 xcexcm or thinner.
Dahlberg (U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,286, May 22, 1984) disclosed an improved plasma spray method for producing a semiconductor solar cell. The energy density in the plasma zone was maintained sufficiently high that the semiconductor vaporized and was brought out of the plasma zone in the form of a xe2x80x9cvapor jetxe2x80x9d, which was condensed on the substrate to form a semiconductor layer. However, there are still several shortcomings associated with Dahlberg""s method. This plasma spraying process made use of a vapor jet, in which a high speed gas stream carries a high concentration of vapor clusters toward and deposit onto a solid substrate. The deposited layers tended to be relatively thick, typically in the range of 20 xcexcm to 200 xcexcm according to Dahlberg""s specification. This thickness range falls way outside of the desired thickness range for thin-film solar cells. Thinner layers not only use a lesser amount of the semiconductor material, but also allow a larger number of single p-i-n junctions to be integrated together to obtain a more effective absorption of a full solar spectrum of wavelengths. Furthermore, thinner layers are more stable with respect to the Staebler-Wronski effect. The high speed gas-vapor jet also made it difficult to produce large-area, homogeneous coatings. Further, with a high-speed gas flow, it was difficult to ensure that all inputted solid powder particles were completely vaporized when traversing through the plasma zone. Dahlberg failed to fairly suggest how complete vaporization could be achieved. In the field of plasma spraying, the maintenance of a stable and constant-speed powder feeding is known to be a difficult task to accomplish. This issue was not addressed in Dahlberg""s patent. An unstable or non-constant feeding of powder particles resulted in coatings of non-uniformity and poor quality.
The present invention has been made in consideration of these problems in the related prior arts. One object of the present invention is to provide a cost-effective method for directly forming individual anti-reflection, active, and electrode layers without going through the intermediate steps. For instance, a transparent, electrically conductive coating (serving as an anti-reflection layer) can be directly deposited onto a p-i-n junction active layer without having to go through intermediate steps such as powder production, compaction and sintering of powder to form a target, and then the sputtering. In order to produce a uniform and thin coating on a solid substrate, it is essential to produce depositable oxide, selenide, sulfide, telluride, semiconductor, and metal species that are in the vapor state prior to striking the substrate. These species are preferably individual molecules or nanometer-sized clusters that are directed to deposit onto a solid substrate at a speed sufficiently high for the mass production of coatings, but low enough so that ultra-thin films of no more than 1 xcexcm in thickness can be readily made.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method entails producing ultra-fine vapor clusters of oxide species and directing these clusters to impinge upon a substrate, permitting these clusters to become solidified thereon to form a thin transparent coating layer. These nano clusters are produced by operating an ionized arc nozzle in a chamber to produce metal clusters and by introducing an oxygen-containing gas into the chamber to react with the metal vapor clusters, thereby converting these metal clusters into nanometer-sized oxide clusters. The heat generated by the exothermic oxidation reaction can in turn be used to accelerate the oxidation process and, therefore, make the process self-sustaining or self-propagating. The great amount of heat released can also help to maintain the resulting oxide clusters in the vapor state. Rather than cooling and collecting these clusters to form individual powder particles, these nanometer-sized vapor clusters can be directed to form an ultra-thin, nano-grained oxide coating onto a glass or plastic substrate. Selected oxide coatings such as zinc oxide, ITO and ATO, are optically transparent and electrically conductive.
In related prior arts, ionized arc methods have been used for producing nano-scaled powder particles, but not nano-grained thin coatings. For instance, Saiki, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,166, Mar. 14, 1989) disclosed a method that involved vaporizing a starting material by supplying this material into a plurality of direct-current (DC) plasma currents combined at a central axis of a work coil for generating high frequency induction plasma positioned under the DC plasma-generated zone. Another example of plasma arc based apparatus for powder production is disclosed by Araya, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,369, Mar. 22, 1988 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,718, Sep. 9, 1986). The apparatus for producing ultra-fine particles by arc energy comprises a generating chamber for generating ultra-fine particles, an electrode positioned opposite to a base material so as to generate an electric arc, a suction opening for sucking the particles generated in the chamber, a trap for collecting the particles sucked from the suction opening, and a cooler positioned between the suction opening and the trap for cooling the sucked ultra-fine particles. Still another example of a plasma arc based process for synthesizing nano particles was disclosed by Parker, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,701, Oct. 24, 1995; U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,349, May 7, 1996 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,684, Feb. 23, 1999). The system used in this process includes a chamber, a non-consumable cathode shielded against chemical reaction by a working gas, a consumable anode vaporizable by an arc formed between the cathode and the anode, and a nozzle for injecting at least one of a quench and reaction gas in the boundaries of the arc.
Glazunov, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,610, Aug. 14, 1973) disclosed a powder-producing device that includes a rotatable, consumable electrode and a non-consumable electrode. In a method proposed by Clark (U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,667, Jun. 3, 1975), an arc is struck between a consumable electrode and a second electrode to produce molten metal which is collected, held and homogenized in a reservoir and subsequently atomized to produce powdered metals. Akers (U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,184, Aug. 17, 1976) developed a method for powder production, which entails striking an electric arc between an electrode and the surface of a pool of molten material. The arc rotates under the influence of a magnetic field to thereby free liquid particles from the surface of the pool. The liquid particles are then quenched to become a solid powder material. Uda, et al. (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,740, Mar. 15, 1983) taught a process for producing fine particles of a metal or alloy. The process involves contacting a molten metal or alloy with activated hydrogen gas thereby to release fine particles of the metal or alloy. The method disclosed by Ogawa, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,857, Sep. 9, 1986) entails injecting a powder feed material into a plasma flame created in a reactive gas atmosphere. The powder injection rate is difficult to maintain and, with a high powder injection rate, a significant portion of the powder does not get vaporized by the plasma flame.
It is thus an object of the present invention to adapt improved versions of ionized or plasma arc methods for the production of nano-grained coatings or thin films as constituent layers of a solar cell.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for directly depositing an optically transparent and electrically conductive coating onto a solid substrate.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for directly depositing a semiconducting coating onto a solid substrate.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for the mass production of solar cell modules.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention is an arc-induced metal vapor synthesis or, simply, xe2x80x9carc vapor synthesisxe2x80x9d method for producing a functional coating onto a substrate. The method includes four primary steps: (a) providing an ionized arc nozzle that includes a consumable electrode, a non-consumable electrode, and a working gas flow to form an ionized arc between the two electrodes, wherein the consumable electrode providing a metal material vaporizable from the consumable electrode by the ionized arc; (b) operating the arc nozzle to heat and at least partially vaporize the metal material for providing a stream of nanometer-sized metal vapor clusters into a chamber in which the substrate is disposed; (c) introducing a stream of a reactive gas into the chamber to impinge upon the stream of metal vapor clusters and exothermically react therewith to produce substantially nanometer-sized compound semiconductor or ceramic clusters; and (d) directing the compound or ceramic vapor clusters to deposit onto the substrate for forming the coating.
In the first step, the arc vapor synthesis method begins with feeding at least a wire or rod of either a pure metal or metal alloy onto an electrode (referred to as a consumable electrode) in the upper portion of a coating chamber. A rod composed of two or three (or more) metal elements at a predetermined proportion may be fed into the arc zone. Alternatively, two or three rods may be fed concurrently to provide precursor metals at a desired proportion. A non-consumable electrode is disposed in the vicinity of the consumable electrode. The proximal ends of the two electrodes are inclined at an angle relative to each other. The opposite ends of these two electrodes are connected to a high-current power source. In the second step, the high currents strike an ionized arc between the proximal ends of the two electrodes in the presence of a working gas. The ionized arc heats and vaporizes the wire or rod tip to form nano-sized metal vapor clusters. While the leading tip of a wire or rod is being consumed by the arc, the wire or rod is continuously or intermittently fed into an arc zone. This, along with the constant supply of a working gas, helps to maintain a relatively stable arc. In the third step, a reactive gas such as an oxygen-containing gas is introduced into the chamber to react with the metal vapor clusters to form metal compound or ceramic clusters. The oxygen-containing gas serves to provide the needed oxygen for initiating and propagating the exothermic oxidation reaction to form the oxide clusters in the liquid or, preferably, vapor state, which are then directed to deposit onto the substrate to form a thin, nano-grained coating.
The present invention provides a low-cost method that is capable of readily heating up the metal wire to a temperature as high as 6,000xc2x0 C. In an ionized arc, the metal is rapidly heated to an ultra-high temperature and is vaporized essentially instantaneously. Since the wire or rod can be continuously fed into the arc-forming zone, the arc vaporization is a continuous process, which means a high coating rate.
The presently invented arc vapor synthesis method is applicable to essentially all metallic materials, including pure metals and metal alloys. For solar cell applications, the metal may be selected from the group consisting of aluminum, antimony, bismuth, boron, cadmium, copper, gallium, germanium, indium, lead, tin, and zinc. Indium, tin, zinc, and antimony are currently the preferred choices of metal for practicing the present invention for making conductive and transparent electrode or anti-reflection layers. For metal materials with a high boiling point, a multiplicity of arc nozzles may be used to ensure that the material is thoroughly vaporized.
For the deposition of an oxide layer, the reactive gas may be an oxygen-containing gas, which includes oxygen and, optionally, a predetermined amount of a second gas selected from the group consisting of argon, helium, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, chlorine, fluorine, boron, sulfur, phosphorus, selenium, tellurium, arsenic and combinations thereof. Argon and helium are noble gases and can be used as a carrier gas (without involving any chemical reaction) or as a means to regulate the oxidation rate. Other gases may be used to react with the metal clusters to form compound or ceramic phases of hydride, carbide, nitride, chloride, fluoride, boride, sulfide, phosphide, selenide, telluride, and arsenide in the resulting coating if so desired. The method is applicable to essentially all II-VI, III-V, and V-VII compound semiconductors. Sulfides, selenides, and tellurides are particular useful compound semiconductor materials for use in the solar cell active layers. The gas flow rate is preferably adjustable to provide a desired range of coating rates.
If the reactive gas contains oxygen, this reactive gas will rapidly react with the metal clusters to form nanometer-sized ceramic clusters (e.g., oxides). If the reactive gas contains a mixture of two or more reactive gases (e.g., oxygen and nitrogen), the resulting product will contain a mixture of oxide and nitride clusters. If the metal composition is a metal alloy or mixture (e.g., containing both indium and tin elements) and the reactive gas is oxygen, the resulting product will contain ultra-fine indium-tin oxide clusters that can be directed to deposit onto a glass or plastic substrate.
At a high arc temperature, metal clusters are normally capable of initiating a substantially spontaneous reaction with a reactant species (e.g., oxygen or sulphur). In this case, the reaction heat released is effectively used to sustain the reactions in an already high temperature environment.
Another embodiment of the present invention is an arc-induced vapor deposition or, simply xe2x80x9carc vapor depositionxe2x80x9d method for depositing a thin semiconductor coating of no greater than a few microns thick (preferably xe2x89xa61 xcexcm) onto a solid substrate for the fabrication of a functional layer in a solar cell device wherein the functional layer can be used as an anti-reflection layer, an active layer for photon absorption and charge generation, a buffer or window layer, or an electrode layer. The method includes three steps: (a) providing an ionized arc nozzle that includes a consumable electrode, a non-consumable electrode, and a working gas flow to form an ionized arc between the two electrodes, wherein the consumable electrode provides a semiconductor material vaporizable therefrom by the ionized arc; (b) operating this arc nozzle to heat and at least partially vaporize the semiconductor material for providing a stream of nanometer-sized vapor clusters of the semiconductor material into a chamber in which the substrate is disposed; and (c) directing the stream of semiconductor vapor clusters to flow toward the substrate and deposit thereon at a flow speed appropriate for forming the ultra-thin semiconductor coating. In this case, the final coating composition is substantially identical to the initial semiconductor feed material.
Advantages of the presently invented method are summarized as follows:
1. In a first embodiment of the method (arc vapor synthesis), a wide variety of metallic elements can be readily converted into nanometer-scaled compound or ceramic clusters for deposition onto a range of substrates including glass, plastic, metal-coated glass, metal-coated plastic, metal, ceramic (including oxide), and semiconductor substrates. The starting metal materials can be selected from any element in the periodic table that is considered to be metallic. In addition to oxygen, reactive gas species may be selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, chlorine, fluorine, boron, sulfur, phosphorus, selenium, tellurium, arsenic and combinations thereof to form metal hydrides, oxides, carbides, nitrides, chlorides, fluorides, borides, sulfides, phosphide, selenide, telluride, arsenide and combinations thereof. In a second embodiment of the method (arc vapor deposition), the starting feed material could be any vaporizable semiconductor or ceramic material. No known prior-art technique is so versatile in terms of readily producing so many different types of thin semiconductor and ceramic coatings on a substrate.
2. The metal material can be an alloy of two or more elements which are uniformly dispersed. When broken up into nano-sized clusters, these elements remain uniformly dispersed and are capable of reacting with oxygen to form uniformly mixed ceramic coating, such as indium-tin oxide. No post-fabrication mixing treatment is necessary.
3. A wire or rod can be fed into the arc zone at a relatively high rate with its leading tip readily vaporized provided that the ionized arc (or several arcs combined) gives rise to a sufficiently high temperature at the wire tip. This feature makes the method fast and effective and now makes it possible to mass produce functional coatings on a solid substrate cost-effectively for solar cell applications.
4. High quality, dense polycrystalline intrinsic and doped semiconductor films and structures can be fabricated directly from rods or wires. High strength bonding of sprayed semiconductor or ceramic coatings to substrates can be achieved The physical, chemical and electrical properties of the coatings can be controlled by varying the process variables. Films can be deposited in large areas and on complex shapes in thicknesses from tens of nanometers to tens of micrometers. Besides polycrystalline semiconductor active layer, the arc vapor synthesis or deposition process can be used to deposit other portions of the solar cell, namely, electrical conductors and anti-reflective or protective cover layers which must be sufficiently transparent on the area of the cell to be illuminated. The process is mass-production oriented, permitting high deposition rates with good reproducibility. It can be scaled up and automated for routine deposition and all fabrication to achieve cost reductions.
5. The system that is needed to carry out the invented method is simple and easy to operate. It does not require the utilization of heavy and expensive equipment such as a laser or vacuum-sputtering unit. In contrast, it is difficult for a method that involves a high vacuum to be a continuous process. The over-all product costs produced by the presently invented vacuum-free method are very low.